sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Avaya - Lucent Telephones & Systems Avaya vs Toshiba; IP vs TDM

Hello,
This is my first post on this site and I hope someone can give me a few recommendations. I'm shopping for a new phone system for my company. We are moving from a 50 person capacity office to a new office with 100 person capacity. The lease is for 10 years. We are currently using a Toshiba Strata system that can be configured for IP, but we're using all digital stations. I don't particularly like the system much because I don't believe it as user and admin friendly as a Definity Avaya system I've used in the past. Since the Toshiba is old and we're signing a 10 year lease, I thought this might be a good time to update to a new system all together. I've had 2 resellers recommend the S9300. I've been thinking about getting the modular messaging VM too. I'm concerned whether we should be going IP or staying TDM. From what the vendors are saying, pricing for IP is not cheaper than for TDM and about 75% of their most recent sales have been IP. If we go IP, I don't have a good Cisco background, but I have access to consultants who do and would certainly get a maintenance plan with this. I'm also somewhat concerned about running phone traffic on my LAN. I know that we would create a separate VLAN and have their own PoE switches, but I'm still somewhat apprehensive about things like IP address conflicts, network problems that could shake my data and voice networks to the ground essentially killing us (well, at least me!!!).

Any help and guidance would be appreciated.

Thank you!

JD

Welcome to the board JD.

The biggest thing to keep in mind when buying a new phone system is the company you buy from. Most all equip manufactures are on the same page anymore, but the big thing is getting support tomorrow or 5 to 10 years down the road. Plus getting a nice installation and not just a box thrown on the wall. That is where the people you buy from comes into play. Get references from the companies that you get to bid your new system and by all means call them.

You said you where at 50 stations now and growing to 100. It could save you some money to look at the IP Office line on the Avaya side.
And then to answer your final question. If you don't feel comfortable running your voice traffic across your LAN then don't. You can have a IPO with digital sets and separate from you LAN. But still have the features of a full IP system if you need to connect remote offices or locations.

I will second what Mike said. Why go to a Definity with only 100 stations? IPOffice gives you most of the same features the Definity will, and you can get a large capacity conference center, which Definity people are buying the IPOffice for anyway.

Food for thought.

mdaniel and mongo - thank you both for your replies.

I should first clarify that the system I'm looking at is the S9300. The Definity was one that I was familiar with from a previous job I had. It seemed fairly easy to administer (at least moves/adds/changes) and we never had problems with it, which is why I'm looking at other Avaya systems.

I've been told by various vendors that the IP Office is fine for a small place, but since we are a Hedge Fund and so much of our business is reliant on the phone, we should go with a more robust platform. Also, apparently, there are 141 floor boxes, but for now, we're building the office out to approx 100 stations. My guess is that if we max out the 100 stations, we will squeeze a few more seats out of the floor plan.

As for installation, I'm looking at 2 reseller, both of which I have a degree of familiarity with.
1. A technology consulting company used to outsource it’s telephone is bringing it in-house. They persuaded 2 engineers from a well known Avaya reseller to help them start their telephony organization. This technology firm used to run technology before I came on board and we still have a relationship with them. Generally they are good.

2. The other reseller is the firm from which the 2 engineers (mentioned above) used to work for and who sold my last employer the Definity system. We never had problems with the system and when any questions came up, they were responsive, so I have faith in both organizations, but especially the later.

What I'm a little more interested in is whether you think it is a good idea to invest $80K or so for a new technology phone system when it would to upgrade our 6 year old Toshiba system, with the idea being that we want 10 more years out of it. This would cost approx $10,000. My thought is if we're going to upgrade at some point, we should do it now. I just don't like the Toshiba phones and the vendor has been hesitant to get me access to the PBX so that I can do my own administration. Plus, I don't know this system.

You are looking at buying an S8300 not S9300. Most likely you will pair your S8300 with at least 2 maybe 3 G700 gateways. Regardless, definity or as it is now called, communication manger is a rock solid system. The key is to get a Avaya Business Partner to do the install. Send me a PM, I can refer you to mine as I am in NJ. IP phones are nice hanging off of the Communication Mananger but the difference in price between IP and TDM is not much. If you are already wired for voice, then you won't save much at all.

Liquidvw - thanks for correcting me - I fat-fingered that one.

They're calling for 2 G700 gateways. I'd be interesting in speaking with you if you wouldn't mind. I'll send you my contact info via PM.